Took height and weight last week. I grew by 2cm, err, vertically. Weight is still around the same. Jean hasn't reported any good news to me yet.

An amazing thing happened last week. I was doing violin practice as usual in my room. Then suddenly, I heard violin-like sounds coming from my next-door-neighbour, Jean. I thought I was hallucinating the sounds (influence from Musicophillia) and listened a bit more. Then, I ran out of my room and chionged into Jean's room like her room was some bomb shelter. True enough, she was doing her scales. It had been months since I heard her play her violin (ok, apart from having to play at church). It was such a joyous yet shocking occasion. I later learnt that she had SYF audition the next Wednesday. Believe it or not, she was complaining and promising she would try her best not to get in. Then one fine day, she suddenly starts practicing for the SYF audition. I wonder which part of her brain got screwed too tightly. I can't really imagine how she managed to survive her cca without doing violin practice. In fact, she never practices cca pieces at home. In the end, she did get into the SYF ensemble. So we are now next door neighbours, competing in the SYF. Sigh..

I like Mozart's music because of the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star piece, but I don't like him for his other stuff. Initially, I thought the concerto was easy and it would be better than the rest of my pieces. But then, of course, it turned out the other way round. Now that I know the notes well, the technique becomes very difficult. My teacher can just spend the whole lesson correcting how almost every note/chord should be played. His music has so many minute details that I have something to occupy my mind for every bar (except bar rests). I don't know how to describe further, but it's just torturing to play precisely, and with style.

My ears were quite tortured yesterday when the tuning guy came to tune our piano. He's quite old. He worked as a piano tuner for 30 years. But anyway, for slightly more than an hour, I just kept hearing the piano being played, a few notes at a time. It was quite out of tune but I must admit my ears felt much better after the piano was tuned. I also realised that tuning a piano is like tuning a violin. First tuning one note, then moving on to a double stop 5th apart. Then octave. Too bad a piano has 88 strings. Very tedious.

I was randomly plucking strings on my violin when I discovered a rather good chord progression. Practically, it sounds good. But theoretically, I don't know what I'm playing. If anyone can find out, tell me. First, hold the violin in "guitar" position. Then pluck through the strings once each, starting from G - D - A - E. ( ) means fill in notes after playing the last E. basically, D, but can just improvise along that line. Time signature is 4/4.

Chord 1: In order of GDAE, C# - D - A - E- (A string: da)

Chord 2: A - D - A - E (A string: d)

Chord 3: B - D - A - E (A string: d, then G string: a)

Chord 4: G - D - A - E (f# e d) [I suspect chord 3 and 4 is an imperfect cadence]

Then, a rather interesting sounding chord, Bb - D - A - E (d c# d)

No prizes for guessing though.

My dad got an iPhone from his company. Maybe mac delivered too many. Now, Microsoft vs. Mac at home is at a draw. But this is another reason why I want to work for Singtel next time.

Happy Chinese New Year to anyone reading this, or me!